By Regena Handy

We don’t do Halloween anymore.

It is not that we are trying to be a couple of old curmudgeons — though that’s probably not something you aim for — it just comes to some of us naturally without effort as we age. Maybe it’s more that the celebration is simply not part of our lifestyle anymore.
Some people have an aversion to Halloween because of its history. Probably I am being naïve to ignore its origins but to me the day has no significance other than a time recognized for children’s enjoyment.

Fall always seemed such a busy season that choosing a costume when our boys were young was often a last minute decision. We didn’t buy costumes so the end result meant ghosts and cowboys and sports figures that we could easily pull together from old clothes stored away. Then off we would go, seeking sweet treats from the neighbors and relatives. We tried to limit the amount eaten on that celebratory night, but the boys were usually bouncing off the walls with energy by the time we returned home.

I’m not sure when trick-or-treating became a tradition. The only time I can recollect doing so as a young child included a trip to relatives. My aunt gave me a piece of butterscotch pie, the real-deal kind that’s cooked in a double boiler pot. Not the powdery type which is poured from a little box and whipped up with a fork. It was delicious.

My other childhood memory of Halloween falls into the “trick” category.  For some unfathomable reason tricksters thought the incredibly dangerous practice of felling trees across roadways to be a joke.  There are several memories of this occurrence but the one that I clearly recall was a school morning following Halloween. The school bus route included a long graveled backroad — of course, the majority of rural roads were unpaved back then — that wound several miles through the mostly wooded area.

Rounding a curve the bus came to a sudden halt. A tree had been cut and laid across the road, leaving no room to maneuver around it. This was in the days before cell phones were even imagined and we were some distance from the closest house. Backing the big bus up the hilly, curvy, graveled road would not only be difficult but dangerous.

What had to be done was done. The older and larger boys got off the bus and between their tugging and pulling and lifting, moved the tree to the side of the road. With little fanfare, they climbed back on the bus and we finished the drive to school, arriving well after the school day had started.

Seems like I heard some good natured ribbing and accusations traded back and forth between the boys as they speculated on the name of the prankster. There seemed to have been some belief that it was done by a student hoping to avoid taking a particular test at school the next morning.

Though once again we did not anticipate trick-or-treaters, we did prepare for a few in case they should show up. Which didn’t happen. So enough with the memories — I’ve got things to do. I have left-over candy to eat.